5.  The applicant was born in 1952 and lives in Lviv.
6.  At about 1.40 p.m. on Saturday, 20 April 2002 police officers V.Z. and S.P. saw the applicant playing with a knife at a public bus stop and took him to the Lychakivsky District Police Station of Lviv for questioning. In the police station the officers seized the knife and forwarded it for an expert assessment to determine whether it qualified as an offensive weapon. After questioning the applicant was released without his detention being recorded.
7.  On Monday, 22 April 2002 the applicant complained to the Lychakivsky District Prosecutors' Office of Lviv that police officers had severely beaten him during the questioning, had handcuffed him without reason and had attempted to hang him from a pipe. Following this complaint the applicant was referred for a medical expert assessment.
8.  On 23 April 2002 the medical experts found that the applicant had several abrasions and numerous bruises on his head and different parts of his body, cumulatively qualifying as minor bodily injuries.
9.  On the same date it was decided not to institute any proceedings against the applicant, as the knife seized from him could not qualify as an offensive weapon.
10.  On 30 April 2002 the investigative unit of the Lychakivsky District Prosecutors' Office refused to institute criminal proceedings in respect of the applicant's complaint of ill-treatment. The decision referred primarily to the depositions by the two police officers, who had stated that the applicant might have been injured when they escorted him to the police station, as he had refused to follow them and they had applied martial arts techniques to subdue him.
11.  On 24 May 2002 the Lychakivsky District Prosecutor quashed this decision as “unlawful and unjustified”, in particular in view of the fact that the applicant himself had not been questioned and that the circumstances of his detention in the police station had not been clarified. The prosecutor further demanded an additional medical assessment of the applicant's injuries.
12.  According to the findings of a new medical assessment carried out between 3 and 7 June 2002, the applicant was additionally found to have several rib fractures, which could have been sustained on 20 April 2002. The applicant's injuries were accordingly re-qualified as “bodily injuries of moderate severity”.
13.  Between June and October 2002 three more decisions not to institute criminal proceedings (of 7 June, 1 August and 13 September 2002) were taken, with reference to the likelihood that the applicant had been injured as a result of the application of proportionate force while he was being escorted to the police station. These decisions were quashed on 11 July, 28 August and 29 October 2002 respectively. By this latter decision it was simultaneously decided to initiate formal criminal proceedings in respect of the incident.
14.  On 31 March 2003 the criminal proceedings were discontinued for want of evidence of criminal conduct of the police officers.
15.  In April 2003 the applicant appealed to the Lychakivsky District Court of Lviv against the decision to discontinue criminal proceedings.
16.  On 1 August 2003 the District Court allowed the applicant's appeal and reopened the proceedings. It noted in particular that in the course of questioning the applicant had provided detailed and consistent descriptions of the circumstances leading to his injuries. The two police officers, on the other hand, had modified their initial explanations (at the outset they had claimed that the applicant might have been injured as a result of the application of martial arts techniques while he was being escorted to the police station, while they subsequently suggested that when resisting application of those techniques he had accidentally fallen to the ground and injured himself). The court further expressed doubt that the applicant's numerous injuries on different parts of his body could be explained by a single fall, as the police officers had said, and instructed the investigating authorities to question medical experts as to the likelihood of the officers' and the applicant's accounts of the incident. The court also instructed the investigative authorities to determine why the applicant's detention in the police station had not been properly registered and to identify and question other possible witnesses to the events.
17.  On 6 August 2004 an additional medical expert assessment confirmed that the applicant had suffered fractures to three ribs, which could have been sustained on 20 April 2002.
18.  On 17 September 2004 and 26 January 2005 the criminal proceedings were discontinued on essentially the same grounds as before. On 15 October 2004 and 10 March 2005 respectively the Lviv Regional Prosecutors' Office quashed those decisions, finding that the court's previous instructions had not been fully complied with.
19.  On 17 June 2005 the investigative unit of the District Prosecutors' Office again discontinued criminal proceedings, referring to the likelihood that the injuries had resulted from the application of proportionate force while the applicant was being escorted to the police station. By way of reasoning they referred in particular to additional questioning of the two police officers suspected of ill-treatment, several other officers, several individuals detained in the police station on the same date, and two lay witnesses, in whose presence the applicant's knife had been seized. The above individuals had stated that, although they were no longer able to remember details on account of the lapse of time, they had not witnessed any ill-treatment of the applicant. The police officer who had been responsible for registration of detainees on 20 April 2002, also stated that the applicant had not been officially detained, as there was no relevant record in the journal.
20.  On 3 August 2005 the Lviv Regional Prosecutors' Office quashed the decision to discontinue the proceedings and remitted the case for further investigations.
21.  On 3 January 2006 the investigations were discontinued on essentially the same grounds as before and with reference to essentially the same sources of evidence. The applicant appealed to the District Court.
22.  On 9 August 2006 the District Court quashed the decision of 3 January 2006, having found that its previous instructions remained unfulfilled. In particular, it noted that it was still unclear why the police officers had modified their initial statements concerning how the applicant had been injured while being escorted to the police station; medical experts had not been questioned concerning the credibility of the parties' descriptions of how the injuries had been caused; and the reasons for the failure by the police to register the applicant's detention had not been determined. The court also found that the investigation's omissions could be perceived as
“stubborn unwillingness ... to conduct a detailed verification of the circumstances described by the applicant ... [and take] a reasoned decision concerning his complaint ...”
23.  On several subsequent occasions the proceedings were suspended, on the ground that it was not possible to identify the perpetrator in spite of the fact that all necessary measures had been taken, and reopened following the applicant's complaints. As of July 2009 (the last date on which the parties updated the Court about the case) the investigation was still pending.